First Grow- 1 Closet, 30 Buckets, 2400 Watts

This is how my friend set up his 7'lx6'wx8'h closet for his first grow:

Genetics: Nirvana Pure Power Plant, DNA Chocolope, Paradise White Chocolate, Dinafem freebies, and a bunch of autofem Easy Ryders

Method: 30 DWC Buckets around the perimeter of the closet with shelves at 4' from the floor to allow for a second level. IR blocking diamond plated mylar all around. Foam weather stripping around door.

Water: RO

Nutrients: Canna and Calmag

Air Pumps: 3 commercial grade pumps each with 12 outlet manifold

Air Stones: Cheap, disposable, 4" inch stones

Ballasts: 2 Lumatek Digital Dual 600 watt ballasts are located away from the closet and are plugged into a CAP light box powered by a dedicated 220v 30amp circuit.

Lights: Lights are hung vertically from the ceiling in cool tubes that are vented by a 454cfm canfan suspended by bungee cords in the attic.

Veg(18/6): 1 600w Hortilux Eye Super HPS
1 600w MH conversion

Flowering: Will switch to flowering (12/12)) in about 4 weeks when the autofems are more than 2 weeks into flowering and are supposedly not/less effected by less light.

4 600 watt Hortilux Eye Super HPS

Intake: Two AC vents bring fresh air into the room. If temps raise above 80 degrees, the canfan turns on and cools the room in a couple of minutes.

Smell: 42lb canfilter ready to be installed when needed


That about covers the basics.....

My friend told me that when lights come on in a bit he will give me some pics with more details.


Anyway, my friend, being a noob grower, is very paranoid about messing up. Other than a slight issue with bad tap water and no ph pen early on, all has gone well though (knock on wood). PH stays between 5.5 and 6.2. Temps stay between 70 and 80 degrees F. Humidity between 45-55%. Water temps in the buckets have rarely exceeded 75, but have been cooled with frozen water bottles when needed. Roots are all growing like crazy and, for the most part, very white. He did, however, manage to get some hydroton gunk on some of them.

The PPPs, Chocolopes, White Widow, Blue Widow, and White Berry's are all on the bottom level. WB's are at 3 weeks and at at 1/2 strength nutes. All others on the bottom are 4 weeks from seed and at full strength nutes and seem to love it.

The second level currently has 12 autofem Easy Ryders that are about 3 weeks from seed and are starting to show pistils already! All but one of these are at 1/4 strength nutes. The test plant was given a full dose to see the effect.

These Canna nutes are pretty easy to work with so far. Ph is very stable.

Pics coming soon (30 minutes or so I'm told). Questions, comments, ADVICE much appreciated. Much he has learned came from this forum.

Ok so my friend just turned the lights on and snapped a few photos. A few of the plants are drooping but some RO water will help that. The Pure Power Plant and Chocolopes are much thirstier than the other strains. When they perk up in a half hour or so he might be able to get a few more pics.

holy crap that's a sick lighting setup you got there I want it . gl with the gro

i4204lyfe8424 said:

holy crap that's a sick lighting setup you got there I want it . gl with the gro

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Thanks a lot! My friend couldn't believe how bright it was when he did test runs with all four lights on

Looks good. Can't wait to see them bitches flower.

k-town said:

Looks good. Can't wait to see them bitches flower.

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Me neither!

Sorry for the pic quality. I need to get a better camera.

The first two pics are of a couple of Easy Ryders that are about 3.5 weeks from seed and starting to develop pistils already.

3rd pic is a Chocolope that stretched a bit

4th pic is a dinafem White Widow.

Here are a few shots of the largest PPP. The roots are bright white and seem to be pretty large for only 4 weeks from seed.

Here are a couple of shots of the roots on the Autofem Easy Ryders.

The last pic is of one of the 3 identical air pumps in the closet.

ThirdCoast said:

Here are a few shots of the largest PPP. The roots are bright white and seem to be pretty large for only 4 weeks from seed.

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Very efficient light setup

Do the plants get turned as they grow, so they receive even light?

Green Cross said:

Very efficient light setup

Do the plants get turned as they grow, so they receive even light?

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Thanks Green Cross!

He had the same question when he was in the planning stages. There seem to be various opinions on this, but he will not be rotating the plants unless someone can convince him otherwise. He read that rotating the plants can mess with a certain hormone that ultimately results in slower growth.

My friend is interested in what you all think this set up will yield. Inspirations for this idea, such as Green Bastard from CC, had harvests of 6lbs+ in slightly larger rooms and growing in soil. They all had experience.

My friend's goal is to hit 1g/watt or just over 5lbs on his first try. What do you think? Any advice to help get him there?

Subscribed!

diggitydank420 said:

Subscribed!

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Me 2

Welcome Marni3d and Diggitydank420!

No promises as for yield, but the grow should be interesting nonetheless. Thanks for tagging along, and feel free to ask questions and comment as desired. I've gained a lot from knowledgeable people on this forum and am hoping to be able to give some back.

5lbs maybe but not with the plants you have there you'd actually want sativa's so they could grow tall and actually utilize the lights you have higher up. Your plants won't get that tall unless you cut the number of them more than in half or they will crowd eachother out, so you will never get much use if any from the lights at the top.

Here's my shitty version of your setup, using just one 1kw light. Notice it's only got 6 plants, even with 6 it was too crowded, could have been 4, ended up with 5 after a hermie.

OregonMeds said:

5lbs maybe but not with the plants you have there you'd actually want sativa's so they could grow tall and actually utilize the lights you have higher up. Your plants won't get that tall unless you cut the number of them more than in half or they will crowd eachother out, so you will never get much use if any from the lights at the top.

Here's my shitty version of your setup, using just one 1kw light. Notice it's only got 6 plants, even with 6 it was too crowded, could have been 4, ended up with 5 after a hermie.

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Thanks for stopping by Oregonmeds; the plants look great!

I think you may have been mistaken: there are two levels with 15 plants each. First level of buckets are on the floor and then the second is on a series of shelves that go around the room at 4' from the floor. So in fact, He doesnt want tall sativas. The chocolope and Ppp will probably be lst'd or scrogged.

Also, he picked the easy ryder and white berry because of their slim profile which is perfect for a high density grow such as this.

ok I didn't notice two levels. Nevermind...

OregonMeds said:

ok I didn't notice two levels. Nevermind...

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It's all good. I appreciate you trying to help.

Here are some pics of how the cool tubes were hung and a couple root shots from the cloner. Plants in the cloner are going to be transplanted to buckets or kept as mothers.